Edenville Dam collapse Michigan

[gnahc79]

Dow Chemical is in Midland btw, not good w flooding

https://weather.com/news/news/2020-05-20-michigan-dams-fail-midland-county-edenville-sanford

Floodwaters entered a chemical plant and parts of a Michigan town were under several feet of water Wednesday after heavy rains forced two dams to fail, sending water rushing downstream.

Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan, shut down operations after floodwaters entered the property at around 10 a.m., the company said in a statement. The plant activated its emergency plans in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard and has only essential employees on site.

The company also has its headquarters in Midland.

 

[UDRider]

This is absolutely impossible. A private company is probably always the better choice for maintaining something such as a country, county or state-wide infrastructure. :dunno

Not sure if sarcastic or serious...

 

[wazzuFreddo]

This is absolutely impossible. A private company is probably always the better choice for maintaining something such as a country, county or state-wide infrastructure. :dunno

Not sure if sarcastic or serious...

Pretty sure he is being sarcastic. :laughing

 

[UDRider]

Pretty sure he is being sarcastic. :laughing

You know I heard very similar things from people who were not. So hard to tell sometimes.

 

[DannoXYZ]

This is absolutely impossible. A private company is probably always the better choice for maintaining something such as a country, county or state-wide infrastructure. :dunno

Monopolies are the worst. No incentive to perform whatsoever. Probably the ultimate and worst evolution of private entreprise. In CA, it’s same story with PG&E. About 5-yrs ago, a judge forced them to set aside $100mil for maintenance & upgrades. Any of it get done? Nope! And then we had fires couple years ago from all their power-lines falling from WIND! Huff & puff and blow your house down!!! I’ve seen power-lines snare and catch AIRPLANES without damage! Not PG&E lines though...

In many cases of civil projects involving private entreprises, they have to put up a performance bond as part of getting contract. Then if they don’t fulfill all terms, they lose bond. There has to be incentive and deterrents in place.

 

[ThumperX]

Monopolies are the worst. No incentive to perform whatsoever. Probably the ultimate and worst evolution of private entreprise. In CA, it’s same story with PG&E. About 5-yrs ago, a judge forced them to set aside $100mil for maintenance & upgrades. Any of it get done? Nope! And then we had fires couple years ago from all their power-lines falling from WIND! Huff & puff and blow your house down!!! I’ve seen power-lines snare and catch AIRPLANES without damage! Not PG&E lines though...

In many cases of civil projects involving private entreprises, they have to put up a performance bond as part of getting contract. Then if they don’t fulfill all terms, they lose bond. There has to be incentive and deterrents in place.

A third dam has burst now as well. Michigan governor is scrambling to get FEEMA funds to bail out Michigan it should be interesting. We all in California know this story too well.

 

[Johndicezx9]

She'll have to heap praise upon the sultan...

 

[Climber]

This isn't as case of the state failing on infrastructure maintenance, this is the case of a private company deferring investment in their infrastructure to the point that it fails.

From this link that wannabe posted above (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/n...voked-failure-reinforce-structure/5226539002/) it looks like Boyce Hydro Power LLC has delayed increasing spillway capacity, something they have known about since 2004.

The LLC means that they can keep pocketing profits, until they can't, then walk away with no consequences.

Assholes. The laws in this country need to change.

 

[gnahc79]

East side of Midland is ok, which is where I used to live. West Midland is underwater, the high school is there .

 

[wazzuFreddo]

The LLC means that they can keep pocketing profits, until they can't, then walk away with no consequences.

Assholes. The laws in this country need to change.

Yup, bankrupt the subsidiary while all the profit handed up to the parent company stays intact.

 

[bojangle]

The LLC means that they can keep pocketing profits, until they can't, then walk away with no consequences.

Assholes. The laws in this country need to change.

Yup.

It's not acceptable for companies to privatize profits and socialize the costs of failed maintenance disasters.

 

[mikev]

Yup.

It's not acceptable for companies to privatize profits and socialize the costs of failed maintenance disasters.

Actually, it's been deemed acceptable by the leaders of the country.

Fucks over the public, but hey.

 

[wannabe]

Actually, it's been deemed acceptable by the leaders of the country.

Fucks over the public, but hey.

Yeah, I cringe when I hear that people want to privatize the USPS.

 

[kevin 714]

living in the age of consequences continues

 

[mrmarklin]

Pretty sure he is being sarcastic. :laughing

Was he??????

Michigan Attorney General Nessel and Governor Whitless have their fingerprints all over the massive dam failures that destroyed so much of the Midland area.

Excellent article in Detroit Free Press. (Having problem loading link)

Federal regulators revoked the operating license for the Edenville Dam in September 2018 due to having inadequate spillway capacity, only able to safely pass 50% of the Possible Maximum Flood event. (PMF) The dam owner prudently lowered the lake level by 8 feet to provide storage capacity to "protect employees and downstream residents." At same time, Federal regulators ceded control and responsibility for the dam to the State of Michigan.

In April of 2019, the Michigan AG sued the dam owner for lowering the lake level without state permission, and illegally killing millions of endangered mussels. Dam owner refilled lake to full capacity. Back story was that thousands of upscale lakefront homeowners and the local county governments wanted the lake refilled to "Save Our Summer" and restore property values and tax revenue. The huge lake was quite shallow and the 8 foot drawdown created wide mudflats along all the shorelines.

May 2020 - the Possible Maximum Flood event occurred and without the extra storage capacity, the Edenville Dam overtopped and collapsed. Released flood waters destroyed the downstream Sanford dam and waters from both reservoirs raged downstream to Midland and on down the Saginaw River.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/n...dam-failure-evaded-state-scrutiny/5228559002/

 

[UDRider]

Was he??????

Michigan Attorney General Nessel and Governor Whitless have their fingerprints all over the massive dam failures that destroyed so much of the Midland area.

Excellent article in Detroit Free Press. (Having problem loading link)

Federal regulators revoked the operating license for the Edenville Dam in September 2018 due to having inadequate spillway capacity, only able to safely pass 50% of the Possible Maximum Flood event. (PMF) The dam owner prudently lowered the lake level by 8 feet to provide storage capacity to "protect employees and downstream residents." At same time, Federal regulators ceded control and responsibility for the dam to the State of Michigan.

In April of 2019, the Michigan AG sued the dam owner for lowering the lake level without state permission, and illegally killing millions of endangered mussels. Dam owner refilled lake to full capacity. Back story was that thousands of upscale lakefront homeowners and the local county governments wanted the lake refilled to "Save Our Summer" and restore property values and tax revenue. The huge lake was quite shallow and the 8 foot drawdown created wide mudflats along all the shorelines.

May 2020 - the Possible Maximum Flood event occurred and without the extra storage capacity, the Edenville Dam overtopped and collapsed. Released flood waters destroyed the downstream Sanford dam and waters from both reservoirs raged downstream to Midland and on down the Saginaw River.

So the LLC gets a pass for not expanding spill way capacity which it knew was a problem since 2004?

 

[mrmarklin]

So the LLC gets a pass for not expanding spill way capacity which it knew was a problem since 2004?

By trying to lower the lake levels, they were compensating for the deficiency. I have posted a link to the article.

 

[Climber]

By trying to lower the lake levels, they were compensating for the deficiency. I have posted a link to the article.

That's one way of looking at it, but what were the side effects of lowering the lake levels?

Your link was not without bias, so the article is likely to be for the company and against the governor in it's bias. That needs to be factored into what the article says.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

By trying to lower the lake levels, they were compensating for the deficiency. I have posted a link to the article.

They were trying to cheap out on a known issue.

 

[UDRider]

By trying to lower the lake levels, they were compensating for the deficiency. I have posted a link to the article.

The deficiency that they were supposed to fix. It was a hack solution so that they wouldn't have to do required maintenance and improvements, so they can kick the can down the road and maybe some other company would be responsible for it, or the state picks up the tab for fixing it, while they kept all the profits.